As the semester draws to a close, college students everywhere look forward to (hopefully) finishing the year out strong and being able to get some much-needed relaxation from classes. Besides finals, only one thing stands in the way of that well-deserved vacation: class registration.
The closest thing our generation will experience to the Hunger Games, class registration is a true test of the old cliché “the early bird catches the worm.” In case you want an idea of what registration is like or want to relive it, here are the five stages of class registration as told by the Hunger Games.
1) Planning your strategy.
As soon as the schedule of classes for the next semester comes out, you’re on it like white on rice and have your schedule planned by the next hour. It’s the perfect schedule with no Friday classes and nothing starting any earlier than noon, but will it make the cut?
2) Laying in wait.
Like Katniss with her bow, you have no choice but to lie in wait for your registration date to get closer. If you’re tricky or have upperclassman friends, you get a spot held for your classes that are more likely to fill up before you get a chance to register. There’s nothing more torturous than waiting and seeing your classes filling up day by day, but there’s nothing you can do.
3) Regrouping.
It’s the day before you register and two of your classes that you need for your major are full—really, it’s FINE you just won’t graduate ever but really. It’s fine. What other choice do you have but to completely redo your schedule and hope this one doesn’t fill up?
4) Preparing your ambush.
The cornucopia explosion needed careful planning, just like your strategy for registration. You set 12 alarms, starting at 7:30 a.m. because there’s no way in hell you’re letting that perfect schedule not be a reality. You wake up as soon as your first alarm goes off and you have the registration tab pulled up, waiting impatiently for 8 a.m. to roll around.
5) Attack.
Just like the tributes waiting on their blocks, as soon as your clock hits 8 a.m., you’re hitting “register” like a madwoman and waiting with bated breath to see if the perfect schedule made the cut. If you’re lucky and have a ton of credits that allow you to register early, you’re the Career of your friends, unlike the unlucky District 12-ers that had to wait until nothing was left but MWF 8 a.m. classes.
May the odds be ever in your favor this registration season, collegiettes!